1. Define Paleopaganism, Mesopaganism, and Neopaganism, giving examples of each. (minimum 100 words for each)Paleopaganism: The prefix, “paleo,” is derived from the Greek word, palaios meaning “ancient.” This should give us a fair idea of what we are talking about when we use the term “paleopaganism.” Any English speaker could assume we were referring to ancient pagan religions. Isaac Bonewits uses a slightly different connotation of “paleopaganism.” He defines it as, “a general term for the original polytheistic, nature-centered faiths of tribal Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, Oceania and Australia, when they were (or in some rare cases, still are) practiced as intact belief systems.” So far, so good, right? His definition seems to be in step with what the term “paleopaganism” ought to mean. However, he goes on to include Hinduism, Taoism, and Shinto in this category confusing the entire subject and leaving the reader wondering just how Hinduism could be considered an “original polytheistic, nature-centered (faith).” Regardless, for the purposes of this, and future CTP essays, we’ll just go along with his terminology.Mesopaganism: According to the Oxford Dictionary, the prefix, “meso-” means middle or intermediate, coming from the Greek mesos which means “middle.” In this category Bonewits included those pagan religions/traditions which were reconstructed, or in many cases simply constructed, using aspects of paleo pagan religions. He views these created religions as being heavily influenced by what may be considered more modern/mainstream religions, is: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. Meso Paganism, as defined by Bonewits, includes such movements as Rosicrucians, Theosophy, Spiritualism (circa 1888 flavor one assumes), certain African practices such as Vodoun, some Asatru traditions, and Crowley’s philosophy of Thelema. Bonewits emphatically does not include self-reverential satanists. Neopaganism: This is where most of us fall on Bonewits' temporal pagan spectrum. The prefix,”neo-” comes from the Greek neos meaning “new.” Using simple etymological deduction, one may fairly accurately assume this term refers to the modern Pagan religions that have sprung up within this century. And Isaac would agree with that assumption. These religions/traditions feature, according to Bonewits, “aspects of the Paleopagan ways of their ancestors (or predecessors), blended with modern humanistic, pluralist and inclusionary ideals, while consciously striving to eliminate as much as possible of the traditional Western monotheism, dualism, and puritanism.” In essence, neopaganism is the most recent step in creating/recreating pagan religions with some sort of basic connection to ancient religions. In a rather bold way Bonewits attempted to describe the common ground of this far flung and disparate group of religions by saying that, “the core Neopagan beliefs include a multiplicity of deities of all genders, a perception of those deities as both immanent and transcendent, a commitment to environmental awareness, and a willingness to perform magical as well as spiritual rituals to help both ourselves and others.” While there would certainly be those who identify as Neopagan who would argue with his summation, I think the majority would find it essentially sound.

2. Name and describe several of the literary sources that contributed to Neopaganism in the first quarter of the 20th century, and discuss their impact on its development. (minimum 300 words) While originally published in 1890, the 3rd edition of Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough was published in twelve volumes between 1906-1915, squarely within our twenty-five year window of concern. Frazer’s exploration of mythic themes attempted to find the commonalities of human religion across time and geographical regions. He focused on what was similar from religion to religion. It was his position that ancient religions were fertility cults bound up with the image of a dying king who is reborn, whose journey from life through death back to life is reflected in agricultural cycles. He cites Addis, Adonis, Jesus, and Osiris as representations of this motif. He suggested also that the tribal king was connected to and/or seen as an avatar for the Dying god and that the welfare of the king was tied to the welfare of the land (through the symbolic marriage of the king to the sovereignty goddess) and that with the sacrifice of the king the land was renewed and fertility ensured.

His work was met with outrage, mainly because of inclusion of Jesus Christ among the dying and resurrected gods of ancient pagan religions. However, his work shaped Neopagan though up until this very day. Even within ADF we have groves who perform some sort of marriage between their patron god or(in one alarming case I learned about as Regional Druid) Senior Druid and the Sovereignty goddess or the Earth Mother herself. The Wiccan Wheel of the Year and certainly the Fall festival are all bound up with the notion of the dying god, John Barleycorn, and the death/rebirth of the Green Man. Incidentally, his chapter about Beltane traditions and the mass slaughter of frogs is delightful and led to one of my Grove's most entertaining festival rituals in which we smashed frog figures and hurled them with Mighty Yawps into the balefire--good times!

Margaret Murray’s 1921 The Witch-Cult in Western Europe was published during a time when a study of folklore, primitivism, and anthropology was booming. Public interest is folktales and primitive jungle tribes was at a premium. Murray rejected the popularly accepted theory of ancient witches as Satanists and demon-worshippers and instead presented witches as members of a pre-Christian, nature-worshipping cult that spanned Europe and was targeted for persecution by the Christian church. She asserted that male and female leaders both presided over the ceremonies during Sabbats and that the Goddess Diana and the God Dianus (in her second book Dianus was presented as The Horned God) were worshipped. Within the Neopagan community this has been the party line almost ever since despite the general debunking of Murray’s work and its lack of acceptance amongst scholars. Murray, essentially, wrote Neopaganism’s creation story. In 1949 Gerald Gardner published a work of fiction, High Magic’s Aid. In the introduction he claims that, ‘the magical Rituals are authentic, partly from the Key of Solomon (MacGregor Mather’s translation) and partly from Magical MSS, in my possession.” While not technically in the first quarter of the 19th century, it significantly contributed to the development of neopaganism in that it was a targeted attempt by Gardner to generate attention for his religion. In many ways, it was a recruitment tool and thus deserves attention.

3. Describe several examples of authentic folk customs absorbed into Neopaganism, and describe how they have been adapted. (minimum 300 words) “Authentic folk customs” are we saying that with a straight face? What makes a folk custom authentic? Is a Virginian eating black-eyed pease at New Year’s a folk custom? The practice dates only to the Civil War. How does my understanding of the genesis of that custom affect its authenticity? This is one of those obscure, poorly-worded questions. If an activity was so commonplace as to become a custom, odds are that it would not have been recorded. We may read only of these customs when something goes wrong, or it ceases to occur. Oddly, much of the writing about Paganism leads one to believe all of what we do is derived from these authentic folk customs. From Julius’ Caesar’s writings we learn that ancient Druids wore white robes and harvested mistletoe with a sickle. We can not know if that was an everyday custom, a one-time event, or a regular practice. Nevertheless, since the Druid revival of the 18th and 19th centuries, modern Druids have donned white robes for (almost) every ritual. Within ADF we present 2nd level clergy with sickles. To best of my knowledge modern Druids do not often scramble up trees to cut mistletoe in full ritual regalia and we do not use mistletoe in our rituals in any meaningful way. In Scandinavia it is still the custom to light roaring fires on the beach at Midsummer. This has been going since before the Christian conversion (as proudly noted on Sweden’s webpage) and Neopagans today have certainly embraced this custom and gather around roaring fires of their own at Midsummer. While we’re talking about fires, Beltaine fires also pre-date Christian influence in Europe and are a staple of Pagan Beltaine festivities. The May-pole’s origins may also be equally lost in the fog of history, but they are erected dutifully by Pagans and mundanes alike (except that Swedes raise and dance around their maypole at Midsummer). The earliest known drawing of people dancing around a Maypole is from the 1680’s...does that count as authentic? 4. Of the following names, identify and explain the importance each has had in Neopagan history and/or the magical revival (minimum 100 words for each): 1. Gerald Gardner

June 13, 1884-February 12, 1964. An anthropologist and archaeologist of sorts (he began digging unauthorized holes in Jahore) who frequented Spiritualist, and later Rosicrucian groups. He claimed to have been initiated into a coven by Dorothy Clutterbuck in September of 1939. He claimed to believe “Old Dorothy’s” group, New Forest Coven, to be a remnant of the pre-Christian witch-cult religions. He also joined the Ancient Order of Druids. In 1947 Gardner was introduced to Aleister Crowley, renowned occultist and ritualist. He was initiated into Crowley’s OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) and was the highest ranked member (and basically head of the European branch) after Crowley’s death in 1947. Doreen Valiente pressed Gardner to be initiated into witchcraft and in 1953 he agreed. Instead of using the OTO initiation ritual, he developed his own which included nudity (Gardner had long been involved with the nudist community) and scourging which had been an element in his novel High Magic’s Aid. Thus was founded the initiatory tradition of Gardnerian Wicca (a phrase he glommed onto during his own initiation into the New Forest Coven).

Robert Graves

(1895 - 1985) Robert Graves was a poet, translator, and novelist. While he was lauded for many achievements, we shall here restrict our focus to his work which has impacted Neopaganism. His 1948 publication, The White Goddess and his 1955 Greek Myths profoundly influenced the development of modern Pagan religions. His translation work, while rejected by many classicists, embraces the poetic spirit of the ancient myths. Graves valued the feel and spirit of these sacred stories above precise etymological translations, a sentiment seen throughout Paganism today.

In The White Goddess Graves posits there existed a single European goddess of birth, love, and death who was intimately connected to and represented by the phases of the moon. He suggests that this goddess was the single deity worshipped with many names throughout Europe. For those of us working within a hard-polytheistic paradigm, Graves has left us a pantheistic legacy of which we may never be free.

Dion Fortune

(1890 - 1946) A Writer, occultist, Theosophist, and psychotherapist, her writings inspired and influenced many and have played a significant role in the Goddess movements of the last century. Fortune approached religion and spirituality from a Jungian position, similar to Sir James Frazer's. Her magical-themed non-fiction works were unparalleled for clarity and incisiveness. She was among the first to write at any length about protection against psychic attacks in her 1971 Psychic Self-Defense. It is her 1935 treatise on Qabalah, however, that is generally considered to be her seminal contribution to occult and Pagan writing (which sadly does not fall into the 25-year period asked about in question #2 of this course). Her non-fiction Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart is credited as a major inspiration for Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon series which in turn inspired a whole generation of Neopagans (in thought and dress!).

Oberon Zell

One of only two FaceBook friends I have never met in person. Oberon Zell-Ravenheart was born in 1942. Huckster, wizard, polygamist, editor, environmentalist, spiritual revolutionary, and defiler of goats; he is one of our more colorful characters (and that is really saying something in the Neopagan community). Inspired by a Heinlein novel he founded the Church of All Worlds in 1962 which was one of Neopaganism’s earliest and largest churches. Six years later he began publishing Green Egg in which he popularized the very term, “neo-pagan.” Green Egg was widely distributed and offered an international community forum before the convenience of the internet.

About those goats, after founding the Ecosophical Research Association which explored the truths behind myths. For some time the group was known for its unicorns (made by surgically altering the budding horns of young goats--kind of cruel to my way of thinking and not much in keeping with a deep ecology mindset).

Starhawk

Born in 1951 to Jewish immigrants from Russia, Starhawk published The Spiral Dance in 1979 and launched a true upswell of feminist Neopagans. The Spiral Dance was the second book about Paganism I got my hands on and it shaped my entire understanding of spirituality. A story I would be willing to wager is a common one among Pagan women of my age. Starhawk’s activism placed her squarely in the spotlight and she used the notoriety to bring her flavor of Wicca as close as possible to the mainstream. She founded the Reclaiming tradition of Wicca and continues to weave political activism with religion in an inspiring way.

Isaac Bonewits

(1949 - 2010) Bonewits was a member of RDNA, and helped found both the Schismatic Druids of North America and the Hasidic Druids of North America. He was a member of the Satanic Church until he and Anton LaVey parted ways personally and ideologically. Most importantly, to members of ADF, he founded ADF.

While there had existed Druidic organizations prior to ADF, their focus was philosophical and their function more fraternal than religious. With ADF, Bonewits envisioned a true Druidic church with clear, quantifiable standards for clergy. As with many of the Pagans on this list, Bonewits was committed to public religious displays. Unique among Pagan organizations is ADF’s public ritual requirement. Many, if not most pagan groups and churches allow, and in many cases encourage, private, closed rituals.

Ross Nichols

(1902 - 1975) Ross Nichols was introduced to Druidry by Gerald Gardner. he became a member, and later chairman, of the Ancient Druid Order (ADO). The ADO holds public ceremonies at the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes and, famously, at the Summer Solstice (a ceremony which is held at Stonehenge). After leaving ADO, Nichols worked to include more academic understanding into the practice of Druidry. He founded the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) which observes eight seasonal ceremonial days and multiple grades of training as opposed to the ADO model of valuing experience over scholarship. Nichols taught many people over the years, including Philip Carr-Gomm who assumed leadership of OBOD in 1988. 5. Compare and contrast your understanding of three various forms of Neopaganism, such as Wicca, Asatru, eclectic Neopaganism, shamanism, and discordianism.(minimum 300 words) Wicca: Wicca is a tough tradition to talk about using generalities as there are myriad flavors and a wide-spread “do whatever feels ok” mentality. However, if we use broad strokes in our discussion we may not go too far afield. Wiccan ritual focuses on the worship of a Lord and lady, or God and Goddess. This divine couple is understood to be sole deities of whom all other gods and goddesses are representations or aspects. Ritual involves the casting of a circle to keep out unwanted spirits and to keep in the energy raised. Circle casting and other magical elements of Wicca are attuned to the four directions (and the directions correspond with elements which correspond to colors which correspond to certain crystals et cetera). Most ritual has some sort of magical intent and tends to be less driven by general piety or a desire to worship/pray. Asatru: Coming from a combination of words with the resulting meaning of True to the Aesir, these practitioners often refer to themselves as Norse or Heathen. This is a religious tradition informed by Germanic and Scandinavian heritage. Folkish Asatru holds that only those people who are descended from Germanic and/or Scandinavian bloodlines can worship the gods of those people. Universalist Asatru reject the genetic component of faith and claim that anyone of any ethnic group can worship the Norse gods. There are two religious ceremonies recognized within Asatru; the Blot and the Symbl. Blot simply means sacrifice. In a Blot some item, (food, alcohol, or valued goods), is given to the Gods. The ritual can be as simple or elaborate as the participants desire. The Symbl is a ritual encompassed by rounds of toasts and its aims are as much about tribe-building as piety to the gods. Modern Heathens commonly use a three-round format, in many cases each round is dedicated to one group of spirits/beings; Gods, Ancestors, folk (or open round for boasts and oaths). The underlying belief is that all that is said in Symbl echos in the Well of Wyrd and is woven in the Oorlog of all present. Poetic toasts and truth-based boasts weave good wyrd for the participants. Shallow words, empty boasts, and profane language or behavior lead to bad wryd and bad luck for all those present. Religio Romana (Roman Reconstruction): Reconstructionist groups tend to avoid the word “neopagan” like the plague. You won’t find any reference to paganism on the Kemetic Federation (Egyptian recon. organization) website or on Nova Roma’s site. The majority of my understanding of Roman recon religion is from my friendship with members of Nova Roma. This is an all-encompassing religion with specific rituals for various times of day and a rite of sacrifice almost weekly. There is a strict differentiation between public and private worship. Each member must maintain a home altar, called a lararium. It is there that daily rites are conducted by the head of the family. Great emphasis is placed on saying the proper words precisely while adopting the correct physical stance. Overall, in both public and private worship there is a specific way things must be done and deviation from that way renders the ritual void and possibly displeasing to the gods. These three paths of neopaganism; Wicca, Asatru, and Religio Romana are wildly different. Their only commonality could be their reverence for multiple deities and appreciation for historical, pre-Christian precedence. The similarities end there. Wiccan and Asatru have somewhat fluid ritual structures--there exists a basic framework but within that practitioners have vast freedom to extemporize and follow their own spiritual lights. Religio Romana offers its members no such leeway. Their ritual structures are based on the most bureaucratic period of Roman state religion and are as rigid as they are detailed. Wicca places a notable emphasis on magical practice which, while it exists to a greater or lesser degree in Asatru and Religio Romana, is by no means a common part of those faiths. Both Religio Romana and Wicca have practices for preparing or purifying the space in which ritual is to be performed but Asatru does not have any sort of requirement for such actions (though many heathens do practice a space purification in the form of a Hammer Rite or Fire Blessing. I suspect this is a Wiccan bleed over) .

6. Discuss the origins and practices of hermetic or ceremonial magic, and how they have influenced Neopaganism. (minimum 300 words) Hermetism is a syncretic philosophy inspired by Egyptian, Greek, Christian, and Pagan thought which gained popularity between the 3rd -7th centuries CE. It was based largely on the Hermetica; the collected writings of Hermes Trismegistus and include the Corpus Hermeticum, The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, and Asclepius and is concerned with alchemy, astrology, and theurgy. Hermes Trismegistus may have lived in the 1st century CE; during the Renaissance he was believed to have been a contemporary of Moses. However, the authorship and exact dating of the Corpus are unclear and constantly debated. The Corpus was written as a dialog between the teacher, Hermes Trismegistus and his student. Hermes Trismegistus is attempting to explain the underlying unified nature of God and the existence of a single pristine theology given to man that encompasses and explains all of creation. A mastery and full understanding of this prisca theologia allows one to control the stars and forces of nature. The writings of the Corpus were popular with scientific luminaries including Sir Isaac Newton, and were influential during both the Renaissance and the Reformation. Though the phrase, “as above, so below” originates in the Vedas, it is in the Hermetica that we get an expanded explanation that the above is a reflection of the below and the below is a reflection of the above, and thus is accomplished “the miracle of the One Thing.” The period of the Renaissance saw the addition of Jewish Kabbalah to Hermetic thinking. During this time several Hermetic Orders were established. Then, during the 19th century Hermeticism again saw a revival of interest and several more orders were founded, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, made famous (infamous?) by Aleister Crowley in the early 1900’s. Most modern Hermetic societies have strong Rosicrucian and Freemason influences. Hutton has attributed several aspects of Neopagan ritual structure to Hermeticism including the use of the four directions, elaborate tables of correspondence between the spiritual and natural worlds, circle casting, and a majority of the common ritual tools. 7. Discuss the influence of the Pagan festival movement, and how the festivals changed Paganism in the 1980s. (minimum 100 words) The last two decades have seen the emergence of myriad Pagan festivals. These festivals have become the places where Pagans can define themselves and define their community. They are places set apart from the mundane world in which self-identifying as pagan is celebrated and participants are encouraged to share their personal narratives with one another. This story-sharing is an integral part of community-building. Identifying common elements of personal narratives bond groups together in ways that no amount of other types of shared experiences can do. Sarah Pike, in her work Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves outlines many consecutive years of festival-based research. Previous to the upsurge in festivals, the pagan community was fractured into smaller, predominantly geographically-defined groups. At a festival, participants are able to cross-pollinate with other groups, form bonds, share narratives, and expand their personal network. This engenders an increased sense of belonging to a larger, defined community. Pike notes the parallels between the current Pagan festival movement and other religious gathering traditions (ie: tent revivals) and offers, in a warning way, her observation of the increased tendency toward formalization and more rigid structure. A trend she sees being repeated in the Pagan community. Festivals allow increased definition of self and community. Increased definition of community leads to increased institutionalization.

8. Discuss the influence of the Internet, and how it has changed Paganism in the 1990s (minimum 100 words) When I first became interested in Paganism, around 1989 or 1990, there was precious little information to be had. I had found Sybil Leek’s book in my school library and had a treasured copy of The Spiral Dance I had found in a used bookstore in Florida. I remember sending a handwritten letter to the Covenant of the Goddess asking for contacts or resources in my area. I was crushed to learn the closest affiliated coven was in Virginia Beach, nearly 130 miles away; an insurmountable distance for a tween, not old enough to drive. Even through my college years my personal practice was nourished by my extensive mythology collection, what little I could glean from local bookstores, and what I could pounce on when I visited more metropolitan areas.

During my college years (1993-1997) the internet was growing, expanding, blossoming. Sadly I didn’t keep up with that growth and hardly used the internet at all. However, by the time I hit graduate school, the internet was speeding along at full tilt. I was awestruck. With the growth of the internet came the opportunity to connect with other Pagans. Resources, personal experiences, research, and UPG could all be shared in chat rooms or on personal websites. Pagan organizations could have a face, a point of contact reachable by people anywhere, not just in their geographical area. Pagans discovered they were part of a community larger than they had suspected. Additionally, those people who had a mere passing curiosity could access information easily and perhaps become more than passing observers but real practitioners. I found ADF online. I was a member for a year before I plucked up the courage to go to a festival (about which I learned online) and meet other Druids in the flesh. Mine is a not-uncommon story within Paganism. We often tell ourselves that “ADF is not the lists.” But that isn’t exactly true. Without the lists, ADF would be a pale shadow of itself. Most of our Pagan organizations, without the internet, would either not exist, or just have a handful of memberships.

9. Discuss the origins of the Druidic revival in 18th and 19th century England, naming its key players and describing their contributions. (minimum 600 words) The 1700 and 1800’s saw increased interest in the historical group called the Druids as evidenced in the 1744 volume, De Druidis Occidentalum Populorum Philosophis, by Jean Frickius in which he cites 261 articles published about Druids which had been published between 1514 and 1744 (Raoult, 107) . At this time the general population had largely forgotten about Druids or thought of them in terms of charlatans and snake oil salesmen, or simply the stuff of legends with as much relevance as dragons or fairies. However, William Stukeley and members of the Society of Antiquaries were engaged in studying certain megalithic sites around Europe, including Stonehenge. Stuckeley promoted the theory that the Druids had constructed these great sites. Beyond that, he claimed they had been the inheritors of “proto-Christian religious revelation handed down from the family of Noah” (Greer, 138). Stuckeley, and others with a similar mindset gave the historical Druids cache and made them respectable and worthy of study. He even began a fashion of calling himself by a Druid nickname and erecting his own stone circle in his garden. Later, in 1805, French stone circles were also attributed to the genius of the Druids in the publication of Cambey’s Monumens Celtique. However, one must go back as far as 1716 to discuss not just the study of Druids, but the existence of groups calling themselves Druid. In that year,on the Autumn Equinox, John Toland, an Irishman raised in Scotland, called for all Druids to meet him a year and one day later at the Apple Tree tavern located in London. On September 22, 1717, many Druids turned up, thus we know that though there is little evidence of the fact, there were groups of people practicing Druidry across Great Britain, and evidence of at least one group from the continent.Those assembled created a coalition of Druids and Bards and named themselves An Druidh Uileach Braithreachas, the first stemming from the contemporary Druid renaissance in Great Britain which has remained active (Raoult, 105). In 1781 Henry hurle founded the Ancient Order of Druids,and claimed to trace AOD's lineage back to 1717. The Order was largely modeled on Freemasonry with both researched and invented Druidic elements as window-dressing. This was the beginning of what Dr. Michel Raoult, in his article “The Druid Revival in Brittany, France, and Europe,” terms “mutualistic,” and it welcomed working classes along with the more elite found in other Druid organizations. The AOD and its breakaway organization initiated a multi-faceted, involved social network and insurance program. According to Raoult, “This social system was committed to visiting sick people at home or in hospital; widows and orphans; and even offered the possibility of loans for buying private houses. Many of these evolved later into various types of property and family insurance, including life insurance, and culminating, with the progress of technology, in motor insurance!” (Raoult, 108) Iolo Morganwg (born Edward Williams, 1747 - 1826) offered up scores of essays, rituals, charms, and poems he claimed to be part of a bardic tradition handed down to him. Scholars now accept Morganwg/Williams generated these materials himself. However, his detailed knowledge and understanding of Welsh lore and tradition make them useful resources to modern Druids so long as their provenance is understood. Additionally, he skillfully blended his own imaginative work with scraps from authentic manuscripts (though obviously not authored by Druids from whom no literature exists). His work Barddas, published posthumously in 1862 by the Welsh Manuscript Society, had a profound effect on Druidry through the following centuries. Barddas claimed to be a collection of works from different authors preserved with “unfailing memory” from the time before the continental Celts migrated to Britain. Much of the writing shows a monotheistic, Christian bent. However, the volume was popular and believed to be a true representation of Druid thought, ritual, and cosmology for a long time. Many groups were inspired by the book and developed elaborate ritual structures based on its contents. Among the organizations inspired by the writings of Morganwg/ Williams was the Wales-based Pontyprydd. Pontyprydd, influenced by contemporary phallic-centric thinking, held that all religion was in essence a celebration of “the life force in sexual form” (Greer). While their thinking led to the group being considered rather scandalous, their theory does not seem to have spilled into practice.

10. Discuss the origins of the RDNA, and the influence of Isaac Bonewits, and the founding of ADF. (minimum 600 words) It is well understood throughout ADF that we are an outgrowth of the RDNA, Reformed Druids of North America, of which our founder, Isaac Bonewits, was a member. RDNA was born, or more appropriately, hatched, at Carleton College in April of 1963. At that time the College had a policy requiring students to attend weekly of either the College Service of Worship or the Sunday Evening Program worship service. While many of the students chafed at this policy, three young men actively conspired to thwart it. Those three men were David Fisher, Howard Cherniack and Norman Nelson.

There was a clause in the College policy stating that students could instead attend “any regularly organized service of public worship.” Our protagonists, hereafter referred to as “The Triumvirate,” pushed the envelope of College leniency by forming an outrageously unorthodox group. Once the group decided on “Druid” for their denomination, (based on the exotic sound of it and the connection to a nature-center, authority-defying historical group), they opted to classify themselves as “reformed” since they knew little about the Druids and did not want to be too easily quashed. Students then began submitted worship attendance slips with RDNA named as the worship service. Students also tended to attend the College worship services just in case. When the College did away with the requirement in 1964, RDNA continued to exist even though the original reason for the protest was no longer valid.

As mentioned above, the term “Druid” was chosen for relatively whimsical reasons. It would be incorrect to assume that early RDNA was profoundly Celtic from the off. In fact, the Triumverate have explained that they chose a Celtic motif in large part because there was such foggy and incohesive scholarship about the culture. They were looking for a framework essentially free from restrictions.

The tenets of RDNA number 2, only 2. They are stated thusly, “The object of the search for religious truth, which is a universal and never-ending search, may be found through the Earth-Mother; which is Nature; but this is one way,yea, one way among many.

And great is the importance, which is of a spiritual importance, of Nature, which is the Earth-Mother; for it is one of the objects of Creation, and with it people do live, yea, even as they do struggle through life are they come face to face with it “ The original liturgy of RDNA was developed by David Fisher and consisted of three roles; the ArchDruid who would leads the chants, the Preceptor who answered the questions of the Litany of the Waters which was used to consecrate the Waters of Life (sound familiar?), and the Server who carried around the Waters for the folk to share. Theoretically, anyone could fulfill any of the roles. By 1964 RDNA had spread off campus and there were distant Groves established. Grove enjoyed a great amount of autonomy, mainly because leadership at Carelton College was too busy to micromanage.

In 1972 Isaac Bonewits joined RDNA. In the following years the Neopagan festival movement really got into full swing and Pagans were networking and connecting as never before. Isaac saw a need for someone to organize the Celtic and Druid Pagans and bring them into the growing Pagan community. He saw RDNA as the platform from which to lead the movement but he was frustrated by what he viewed as the lack of responsible central leadership within RDNA. In 1974 he submitted a proposal outlining his suggestions (plans?) for reform and ways to make the RDNA flavor of Druidry more marketable. His tone, and possibly his presumption, severely ticked off the leadership of RDNA. Also, he was in a real hurry by RDNA standards. Had RDNA enacted his changes, the entire organization would have been altered into something suspiciously akin to ADF. A major part of RDNA’s rejection of Isaac’s proposal was his insistence that RDNA call itself a religion and align with the Neopaganism.

Isaac eventually broke off and began collecting the people that would form ADF, his Druid church. Isaac appreciated the scholarly approach that had developed within RDNA and one sees echoes of RDNA liturgy in the ADF COoR, and even more so in older versions of ADF liturgy. He also was clearly inspired by the organization of RDNA. But primarily, Isaac wanted a Druid Neopagan church and that is precisely what he created ADF to be. 11. Describe the groups that have split off from ADF, their history and work. (minimum 600 words) There have been many groups to break off from ADF, for many reasons. In Paganism, we tend to be a very independent and hard-headed lot and instead of sticking around to work for the changes we want, too often we take our toys and go start a new game. This has happened repeatedly. Michael Sharding, in his essay entitled “A General History of Reformed Druidism in America” (appendix B) outlines groups who have split from ADF. I would posit that there are many others of which Sharding was simply unaware, or that broke away after the publication of his article. Perhaps the greatest Schism of Our Druidry occurred when the folks who would go on to found the Henge of Keltria broke away from ADF. HoK was founded in 1987 (according to Keltria’s website, other accounts list its date of foundation as 1988), though the process of breaking with ADF began in 1986 when Tony Taylor, Pat Taylor, and Ellen Evert Hopman authored a list of what they saw as problems with ADF (in a document with grievances labeled 1-12...95). When their concerns were not addressed, Pat & Tony Taylor left and officially founded Henge of Keltria. Among other things, one of their biggest concerns was the broad Indo-European focus of ADF. Their position was that Druids were a Celtic phenomenon and as such, a Druid organization or church ought to be solely Celtic in its focus and practice. There are some marked differences between Keltrian Druidry and ADF Druidry. Keltrian Druidry is an initiatory religion and its rites are not public. Additionally, at the time, the founders of Keltria felt that ADF lacked any attention to magical work and they felt that a tradition that incorporated magic was necessary. While ADF adheres to s strictly polytheistic view of deity, Keltria accepts both polytheism and pan-polytheism (the belief that separate aspects of deity are in fact both of a larger, single god-form). They also maintain a liturgical calendar that includes lunar ritual observance in addition to the 8 common Neopaganism High Days. One way in which they are similar to ADF is the way they embrace orthopraxy over orthodoxy. Their organizational structure is two-fold with one branch focused on administration and the other focused on the theological life of the organization.

While Henge of Keltria is likely the most successful of ADF splinter groups, Sharding lists several others; ShadowPath Grove (broke off mid-80’s), Uxello-Druidactios (1988), Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove (1991), American Druidic Church (1992), and the Primitive Celtic Church(1992).

During my time within ADF there have been a few high profile schisms that led to the foundation of organizations. Rob Barton and Todd Covert both left ADF to start their own groups according to their own lights.

Rob Barton’s group, called Comhaltacht Draiocht, Is single-mindedly Celtic in focus and recognizes only the 4 Celtic cross-quarter days. Membership is open to any who requests it. The organization, like Henge of Keltria, is led by the two-pronged leadership structure. The administrative branch, called Comhairle Chennais, and the spiritual branch, called Comhairle Dhraoithe.

The Fellowship of Druidism for the Latter Age was founded by Todd Covert in 2006. The acronym of the group, FoDLA, is also the name of a “Sovereignty goddesses of the ancient Irish” according to the Founding Vision. FoDLA observes nine highdays and seems to have a general disregard for the idea of separate clergy within a Druid religious community, though they do have a path toward ordination which seems to be a combination of the ADF DP and aspects of the CTP Prelim courses.

Both Todd and Rob were prominent members of ADF leadership. However, there are oodles of folks on the local level who leave ADF and found their own group. These folks don’t often make it into the collective memory of ADF. One such person was Dax, former executive member of the Grove of the Seven Hills, ADF who founded Nine Hazels Protogrove in Idaho. The congregation of Nine Hazels grew increasingly dissatisfied with ADF and craved a more rigorous reconstruction approach. Now the group has a large membership of released criminals (due to Dax’s work as a counselor in the department of corrections) and steers the nascent white supremacist leanings of its members into a more tolerant Heathen paradigm. Another breakaway group which won’t make it into the ADF history books is Eplagarthr Kindred in Virginia. This group was founded by several ADF leaders/GO’s (Nancy McAndrew, Kari Eaves-Barber, and Su Crane-Eaves). The founders, while maintaining membership in ADF and continuing to lead their Groves, desired a group with which to worship outside of the ADF COoR and without the public ritual requirement. They founded the Kindred to be a group with a family feel. Over the years, more people wanted to join the Kindred and it eventually aligned itself with The Troth.